The launch of the Premier League Writing Stars book for 2019 celebrated the winners of this year's poetry competition and the impact of the programme in schools across England and Wales.
"I always talk to the children about poetry as the language of the heart and to say what they feel," said Jonathan Noblet, a teacher at St Luke's RC Primary School in Salford.
"This competition has really helped them to think about themselves, self-development, think about the wider world and create some wonderful work.
"There is a group of boys who don't really engage with writing.
"This has really helped them understand it with respect to their favourite footballers, that diversity is really important and working together can create great things."
Being a teacher, @JonnyNoblet sees the benefits of #PLPrimaryStars first-hand 🏫
— PL Communities (@PLCommunities) May 8, 2019
The Writing Stars poetry competition has helped his pupils engage like they never have before ⚽️👨🏫 @MU_Foundation pic.twitter.com/hzIBKOOiyb
The Premier League Writing Stars book "Beautifully Different, Wonderfully The Same" features the winning and highly commended poems from the 25,000 that were submitted for this year's competition.
The book will be used in schools to encourage children with their creative writing.
Key Stage 2 national winner Maariya read out her winning poem "An Ordinary Girl from Birmingham" at the launch.
PL Writing Stars is part of Premier League Primary Stars, a long-term programme to support teachers and inspire children across England and Wales.
‘An Ordinary Girl From Birmingham’
— PL Communities (@PLCommunities) May 8, 2019
Maariya read her #PLPrimaryStars winning poem at the book launch night in front of a very impressed crowd 👏 @DionDublinsDube @skysarahjane @KellyCates @JacquiOatley @Leon_Mann @paddybarclay @julesbreach @RachelRileyRR pic.twitter.com/zQUDaLOHuO
Sky Sports presenter Kelly Cates sees her daughters benefiting from the Primary Stars programme.
"My girls are seven and 10 and it makes sense to me that the Premier League would be involved with kids of that age," said Cates, who composed a poem for Writing Stars with her Sky Sports colleagues, Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher.
"I see how they develop, I see how their minds work, I see how influenced they are by certain things and how important it is to get them at this age in terms of how they progress. It's a really important stage of their life."
Premier League Primary Stars is delivered by 105 Premier League and professional football clubs in more than 16,000 primary schools.
